Rising To The Masses: Hammer

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Before the first riffs echo through the fields of Catton Park, we are diving head first into the pulse-pounding world of the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock 2024. So grab your backstage pass, tune your senses, and join us as we explore the stories, inspirations, and the relentless drive of the bands who are rising to the masses! Introducing Hammer…

How would you describe your band to someone who’s never heard you?

We go for a chaotic, energetic and aggressive sound. We generally would class ourselves as Extreme Metal and there is a good mix of Death Metal, Groove Metal and Hardcore in there. Inspired by the visual aesthetic of over the top horror sci-fi I think we’ve love to bring that feeling you get when you see someone’s heads blown to bits in practical effect glory – ‘ WHOAH that is COOL, I want MORE!’

Tell us about your band’s origin story. How did you all come together?

Adam, Keith & Dave grew up in Penicuik, a town on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Lifelong friends, it was only natural for them to eventually come together in the name of big riffs. Piot moved to Scotland from Poland in 2011 and along with original vocalist Matt (also a Penicuik lad) they got together and formed Hammer in 2018. By 2020 they’d self recorded and released an album. I (Jim) moved to Edinburgh in 2022 from Jersey in the Channel Islands and immediately sought out a band. As it happened, Hammer were out for a new vocalist and I joined in early 2023.

What song would you recommend for someone’s first listen of your band?

Describe your songwriting process. How do you create your music?

Adam and Dave are the key songwriters for Hammer. Adam brings a lot of technical riffs to the table, challenging Piot and Dave to stretch their hands across the fretboard. Dave manages to keep us grounded in a lot of groove, and with these two approaches in tandem we’ve managed to craft some stuff that we are very proud of. Adam has taken care of the lyrics for a lot of the tracks, and has written some fantastic vocal parts. I’m really looking forward to continuing adding to this process as we work on more new material together.

How do you handle creative disagreements within the band?

People clash, and where something like music is involved you’re opening the door to lots of different opinions. Whether that be on the production of a track, travel plans or something like a merch design. I think that Hammer has a very good way of dealing with any disagreements and we look to address these as soon as we can rather than letting anything fester. If we’ve got something important to discuss we will do our best to do so offline so that we don’t lose context over chat, so we value a good old band meeting. We do our best to keep things professional, not take things personally and come to an agreement on what will be best for the whole.

What are your musical influences?

We all love a LOT of music between us, but for this particular band we draw a lot from Strapping Young Lad, The Black Dahlia Murder, Pig Destroyer, The Haunted, Lamb of God, Fit for an Autopsy, Employed to Serve, Heriot and Burner to name a few!

What’s the story behind your band name?

It is a nice and simple name. Hammer. BANG. It kinda ties into how we would describe our sound, just like a big massive HAMMER!

What’s your guilty pleasure music outside of metal?

No such thing as a guilty pleasure! The playlist in our cars on the way to shows and practice bounces across many genres. Between us all there is a lot of time for everything. One of my favourite shows this year that I’ve been to was Dorian Electra in Glasgow on their Fanfare tour, a hyperpop artist whose live performances are just out of this world. 2024 has been a strong year for popular music with the new Charli XCX album going hard and gaining a lot of popularity, and the new Joey Valence & Brae for some great classic hip-hop vibes to name just a few!

Tell us about your most memorable live performance or tour experience.

I think that it would have to be the Metal to the Masses final. The whole series was a lot of fun and with each stage we found we were just giving it more and more which made the audience really dig what we have been doing. The final was testament to that – to perform through the issue above, and continue to deliver a competition winning performance is something I don’t think any of us will soon forget. The atmosphere was also electric, the other bands and guest headliners were all on top form. It really was a lovely day.

What’s the most challenging aspect of being a metal band in today’s music industry?

The world can be a pretty tough place for any artist, but playing in a genre not well renowned for its lavish budgets could be enough to put anyone off. It can be expensive, time consuming and exhausting work. Which is why you need to make sure that you can have fun whilst doing all of that. There is a lot of excellent, readily available music these days too and that can make standing out difficult. But you need to try and use that as an opportunity to learn lessons and persevere.

Any advice for other aspiring metal musicians?

Try and plan as much as possible. For things you want to do over the year, having a session to just measure how much you want to achieve can be valuable and help get stuff done. Plan your set, how you transition from one song to another – even what you might chat to the audience about. Have a plan if something goes wrong – in the final our drummer’s kick pedal fell apart mid first song. We kept playing and he came back in real smooth. Be good to people, the other bands, promoters and staff at venues. But most importantly, make sure you’re having fun with it!

What’s next after Bloodstock for the band?

We’re more eager than anything to ensure that playing Bloodstock this year isn’t the be all and end all for Hammer. We want to use it to keep building momentum and excitement, both in and out of the band, for what we are doing. We’re looking to head straight into the studio to follow up with a larger release, and so far the plan is on track. We also want to ensure that we’re booking in shows for 2025 further away from home.

How do you choose album artwork or visuals for your releases?

So, we’ve gone with Headsplit Design for our releases and merch designs thus far. These designs are raw, gritty but have incredible detail in the right places – and we would like to think, I suppose, that it reflects our sound. We definitely care about our visuals outside of just the album art. For example, our single From Beyond is inspired by the Stuart Gordon 80s Horror Sci-fi of the same name. We worked with our Photographer/Filmographer (Alan Swan) to match the colour grading of the film and were pleased with the outcome

What’s the most unexpected inspiration for one of your songs?

A lot of our tracks revolve around horror based imagery, be that existential horror or more just physical horror. Our new track Accelerator is, at its core, about TRAINS. Yes, that’s right. Choo choo trains. More specifically this track looks at the expansion of the railways in the US during the industrial revolution, looking at its obsession with driving profits and impact on those involved in the work. Yes. We are all very nerdy.

What’s the best gig you’ve attended as a fan and why?

A lot of the guys were at Download 2007 when Strapping Young Lad played, and I know for sure that they’d probably name that as a stand out gig. I’m not jealous of them. Not one bit! For me, personally, I’ve been to a lot of gigs that have left a massive impact on my life. I’m going to give a shout to the last Black Dahlia Murder show I caught in London. I can’t imagine what it was like for the band to lose their brother, but what I can tell you is that his performance at that show is testament to how much energy musicians can put into their shows despite what is going on in their own lives. One of my all time favourite bands, I was lucky enough to see them at the Underworld in Camden, quite a personal venue by all accounts of the kind of stages that they’ve played. Just monstrous live.

Have you faced any challenges as an unsigned band? How do you overcome them?

A big one can be getting larger promoters etc to take you seriously, or to just grow outside of your hometown. Hammer have done well this year in being able to overcome these obstacles. We’ve had to work hard to do it, creating quality content and marketing campaigns to go around this – but nowadays a label is not the totality of what a band needs. You need to show that you can be as self-sufficient as possible. With regards to getting out of your hometown, it’s about making genuine connections with people and making lasting relationships. Music would be dead if we didn’t try hard to get on with each other and lift each other up.

How do you stay motivated during creative slumps?

I can only speak for myself here, truly. I’ve long suffered with depression, I’m happy to talk about that. Part of that can affect your ability to enjoy what you do, and make it really quite difficult to give 100% in your performances and in what you can provide creatively. I am not an expert, but having lived with this for a very long time I’d have to say that what has helped me is to be communicative about it with those around me. My friends, family and ultimately the band. That can be very difficult and daunting, and not everyone will be as fortunate to be able to open up as much as I have. But, do try to ask for help. If you can’t write a riff, lyrics or a beat – play some video games, go for a walk, have a rest. Try not to focus on what you can’t do, and try to do something you can. You don’t have to do everything at once <3

Hammer are set to play The Hopical Storm New Blood Stage On Friday 9th August 2024.